December 15, 2023<\/p>\n
Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Melody Merin, melodym@nclnet.org, 202-207-2831; Sports Fans Coalition \u2013 Brian Hess, hess@istreetadvocates.com, 703-659-7557<\/p>\n
Alexandria, VA \u2013 The National Consumers League (NCL) and Sports Fans Coalition (SFC) today urged the Virginia General Assembly and the Alexandria City Council to reject Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin\u2019s plan to offer billions of taxpayer dollars to Monumental Sports Entertainment for the construction of a new arena for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals. Governor Youngkin\u2019s proposal would reportedly require the General Assembly to authorize the issuance of $1.4 billion, and potentially as much as $2 billion, in public debt. In addition, the citizens of Alexandria are being asked to contribute as much as $106 million in additional funds. Monumental Sports & Entertainment, would be required to invest $403 million, potentially less than 20 percent of the project\u2019s estimated cost.<\/p>\n
There is widespread consensus among economists that subsidizing sports stadiums almost never yields a net economic benefit for the local community and is instead a burden to local governments and taxpayers. Despite this, community after community continues to offer enormous taxpayer-funded incentives to professional sports teams. The Monumental Sports Entertainment deal is no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a terrible deal for Virginia taxpayers, Wizards and Capitals fans, and residents of the surrounding community,\u201d said John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud at the National Consumers League<\/strong>. \u201cCommunities across America continually fall under the spell of billionaire sports team owners who promise the moon in exchange for billions in public money. Our elected leaders must not allow Virginians to become the next suckers in this shell game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFans love their teams, and they hate when they leave the city. That doesn\u2019t mean fans like seeing their hard-earned tax dollars get spent on lavish sports arenas,\u201d said Brian Hess, Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition, lifelong Northern Virginian, and avid DC sports fan.<\/strong> \u201cWe have long opposed public money being used for sports arenas, and have even called for fan-friendly conditions \u2013 the Danifesto \u2013 to be included in the handouts. However, even those conditions may not be enough to tip the scales on just how bad a deal this is. In no uncertain terms, lawmakers should vote \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n NCL\/SFC\u2019s #MonumentalDisaster campaign launched with a petition found on SFC\u2019s website: https:\/\/www.sportsfans.org\/open_letter_to_virginia_lawmakers<\/a>. Here, fans can fill out a form and sign the open letter which will be delivered to lawmakers. NCL\/SFC will also partner with local activists who have already started opposing this deal. Anyone can join the fight by signing the open letter and posting on social media with #MonumentalDisaster.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n About the National Consumers League (NCL)<\/strong><\/p>\n The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America\u2019s pioneer consumer organization.\u00a0 Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad.\u00a0 For more information, visit nclnet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n About Sports Fans Coalition (SFC)<\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 2009, Sports Fans Coalition represents fans wherever public policy impacts the games we love. They work to promote pay equality for women athletes, provide resources to fans at risk for gambling addiction, ticket buyer consumer protections, college athlete name, image, and likeness rights, and many other issues in the sports industry. For more information, visit www.sportsfans.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Consumers League and Sports Fans Coalition urged the Virginia General Assembly and the Alexandria City Council to reject Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin\u2019s plan to offer billions of taxpayer dollars to Monumental Sports Entertainment for the construction of a new arena for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[315,458],"tags":[412],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26933"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27194,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26933\/revisions\/27194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}